5% of the World Population; 25% of the World's Prisoners

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5% of the World Population; 25% of the World's Prisoners

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Skip to 3:30 in the 6 minute clip and you’ll see Senator Jim Webb raising one of my favorite talking points when it comes to educating folks about the so called War on Drugs. Here’s my unofficial transcript of the relevant portion:

Webb: We’ve got an incarceration rate in this country, we’re imprisoning twenty five percent of the world’s prison population with five percent of the world’s population…

Colbert: If you can’t do the time, do not do the crime…

Webb: Well we’ve got 2.38 million people in jail; we want to lock up the bad folks but we need to take a look at what’s happened here and basically when politicians come in and talk about that they’re labeled as soft on crime…

5% of world pop with 25% of its prisoners. There are only a few possible explanations.

• Americans are 5 times worse (badder? More criminal?) than everyone else
• We catch a lot more folks doing bad things
• The War on Drugs / Mandatory Minimums / etc.

If you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras.

[Hat Tip: Drug WarRant and congrats on the 5th birthday]

Tags: War on Drugs

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[click here] for:

Storm Troopers of the Dark Side

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[click here] for:

Should Police target homeowners to railroad to prison?

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[click here] for the text of my July 29, 2008, letter mailed to Bush from Brattleboro, Vermont.

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com
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